Part I: Halloween Story Time
Opening Song: Hello, how are you?
Song: If You're a Monster and You Know It
Book: One Witch by Laura Leuck (2005)
The preschoolers, kindergartners, and first graders in my group started saying "ewww" at the end of every page of this book, which was really funny, and kept the interest of some of the smaller kids who might not have been following the story.
Rhyme: One Little Ghost
I know I could have used props or a flannel board or something to make this book more interesting, but I do a lot of that already, so I just read it straight. Some of the older kids caught onto the refrain and said the sound of each article of clothing along with me.
Song: Horns and Fangs, Knees and Claws
Song: Flap, Flap, Flap Little Bats
You know, Sheep in a Jeep is a great book, but some of its sequels really tie up my tongue with their alliteration and rhyme. I don't think most of the kids had a good sense of the plot of this story, and I really didn't either.
Song: One Little Monster
Flannel Board Song: Five Little Pumpkins
Poem: I wrote a Halloween poem to accompany our craft for today! Click here for the pdf. And here's what it looks like:
Flap, flap, flap
go the wings of the bat.
"Meow, meow, meow,"
says the little black cat.
The little white ghost says,
"Boo! Boo! Boo!"
And the jack-o-lantern says,
"Happy Halloween to you!" Part II: Popsicle Stick Puppet Craft
After I read the poem and showed my example craft, each child received a sheet with four Halloween creatures on it, as well as a copy of my poem.
The craft page looks like this. (Download it here.)
(I only used the one on the left, but another option would have been to print both sides and have them glue the puppets together around the stick to make them two-sided. But I was trying to simplify and save paper!)
I actually had the kids line up and I handed each of them their sheets personally. I did that for three main reasons:
- To bring order to the chaotic sprint from the story time room to the craft table.
- To ensure that every child who attended the story time would definitely get a craft sheet. (Our story room is carpeted and has no real breathing room for crafting, so I do the crafts out in the open space of the library, which means I have to allow walk-ins to do them, too. That is usually fine, and great for our stats, but as an upcoming Gettin Crafty post will show, there are days where greed gets the best of some people. Better to be safe than sorry.)
- To help me count how many kids attended the program. (I had 40 craft sheets, and had 15 left when I was done, so that meant 25 kids were there. Then I just had to count up the babies not doing the craft and voila! Instant stats.)
Here are the instructions for the craft:
- Color Halloween creatures.
- Cut out creatures (possibly with the help of an adult.)
- Glue a popsicle stick to the back of each colored creature.
- Use puppets to perform the poem.
Great craft idea and I totally agree about the CD player. I noticed the few times I used one, I got less of a response than when I didn't.-Michelle
ReplyDeleteI love your ideas-great songs and craft!
ReplyDeleteMary
Great ideas! I'm borrowing some of this. And it's funny--I've never used a CD player for my story times, and the overwhelming response from the grown-ups is that they LOVE it. They think the CDs are much less personal, and I have to agree, though my throat sometimes takes a beating depending on how many songs I do (usually lots!)
ReplyDelete